High Quality Sleep Is Critical for Good Health

Most people believe that all sleep is the same, as long as you sleep. This is not true. There are, in fact, two types of sleep: high quality and poor quality. And some people enjoy high quality sleep night after night, while others rarely encounter it. Poor quality sleep can easily be seen by looking at the brain waves of people while they are sleeping. These waves are fragmented in places and are generally quite different from the waves around them.

Poor quality sleep leaves you feeling sluggish, drained, out-of-sorts and sleepy during the day. Indeed, if you feel this way it's a good indication your sleep is of poor quality. High quality sleep, on the other hand:

Restores and revitalizes your body and mind.
Helps you avoid depression and anxiety.
Decreases your risk of heart and cardiovascular disease.
Revitalizes your immune system.
Improves your concentration and memory during the day.
Indeed, you should be able to feel many of these things during the following day, and if you don't, it may mean that you are experiencing poor quality sleep.

Although it might seem that your body is inactive while you are sleeping, this is not true. Important changes are going on. They include:

Your heart rate and blood pressure decreases.
Your breathing rate decreases.
Your body temperature drops slightly.
Growth hormones are released.
Cortisol is released (some is also released during the day).
These things are all critical for regenerating your body and getting it ready for the next day. They do not take place as efficiently and smoothly as they should during poor quality sleep. And this is one of the reasons you don't feel fully recharged and ready for the day.

You can see the problem more closely if you look in detail at how sleep occurs. It's not as simple as going to sleep, then waking 8 hours later. Your body actually undergoes 4 or 5 cycles of about 90 minutes each night. Each of these cycles consists of two stages of light sleep, two stages of deep sleep, and a stage of REM, or dream, sleep. Each of these stages can easily be seen in the waves that your brain gives off during the night. Both the frequency (speed) and amplitude (height) of these waves changes as you sleep. The major change is that they slow down, and their amplitude increases.

The first stages of sleep, referred to as one and two, are light sleep, and they occur soon after you fall asleep. Your brain waves are still relatively rapid, but as you continue sleeping they slow down and you enter stage 3, then stage 4 of what is referred to as deep sleep. It is very difficult to rouse you from deep sleep. You can spend up to 45 minutes in deep sleep (young people spend the most time here), but eventually you re-enter light sleep. And finally you pass into REM, or dream sleep. This is the point where you are closest to being awake, and your brain waves have speeded up considerably. You can dream anywhere from a few minutes to twenty minutes or more, then you go back to stage 2 light sleep, then deep sleep. You go through this cycle 4 or 5 times during the night.

If you are a good sleeper, everything goes smoothly and you don't wake up. (Actually, almost everyone wakes up for very short periods of time during the night, but they go back to sleep quickly and don't remember waking.)

The brain waves associated with high quality sleep are generally uniform within each stage, and the transition from stage to stage is smooth. The brain waves of poor sleepers, on the other hand, have irregular section in them referred to as fragmentations that are broken-up and irregular. They are, basically, a sudden change from slow regular waves to fast waves that resemble wakefulness. Large numbers of these fragmentations occur over the night. Not all of them wake the person up, so someone with poor quality sleep frequently doesn't realize that he or she is not sleeping soundly.

These fragmentations cause many problems for sleepers, including:

Not enough deep sleep.
Not enough REM sleep.
Broken and irregular cycles.
Too much light sleep.
Sudden changes in normal body changes at night.
They also tend to make the sleeper toss and turn a lot during the night, and this is also an indication of poor quality sleep. The first two on the above list are very important because deep sleep and REM are the two most important stages of sleep. Deep sleep regenerates your body, and REM sleep appears to regenerate your mind.

What all this boils down to is: if you want the benefits of high quality sleep, you'll have to get rid of the fragmentation seen in poor quality sleep. How do you do this? Many long and comprehensive lists of what you should do for good sleep exist and I won't try to cover everything; I'll concentrate only on the things that are most critical for eliminating fragmentation and poor quality sleep. They are:

Good sleep patterns begin with changes during the day, particularly the hour or so before bedtime. During this last hour you should relax and wind down. It's also important to stick to the same schedule (particularly bed-time) day after day.
If you are properly primed at bedtime a "wave of sleepiness" will occur. Wait for it, if possible.
Tossing and turning causes much of fragmentation, so get as comfortable as possible using a proper pillow, mattress, covers and so on.
Thoroughly relax when you go to bed. Let yourself go! Leave all problems behind.
It is critical once you are in bed to eliminate all "racing thoughts," particularly negative thoughts and thoughts related to work or any problems you might have.
Don't worry about anything. In particular, don't worry if you don't fall asleep fast enough. Enjoy your relaxation. Think of it as fun.
After turning off all thought and enjoying your feeling, try to enlist images of quiet, peaceful places you have enjoyed. Concentrate on them. Visualize them.

Sleep may help us to forget by rebalancing brain synapses

We spend one third of our lives sleeping, but we still do not know exactly why we sleep. Recent research shows that that the brain does its housekeeping while we sleep, and clears away its waste. According to another hypothesis, sleep plays the vital role of restoring the right balance of brain synapses to enhance learning, and two studies published in today’s issue of Science now provide the most direct evidence yet for this idea.

We do know that sleep is important for consolidating newly formed memories. During waking hours, we learn all kinds of new information, both consciously and unconsciously. To store it, the brain modifies large numbers of synaptic connections, making some of them stronger and larger, and it’s now thought that as we sleep other synapses are weakened or destroyed, so that the important new information is stored for later use, while irrelevant material, which could interfere with learning, is not.

Giulio Tononi argues that the synaptic strengthening that accompanies learning increases the brain’s energy consumption, and may overload its capacity for processing information. His synaptic homeostasis hypothesis states that sleep renormalises the overall strength of synapses across the brain, and that large-scale “downscaling” of synapses takes place when the brain is offline during sleep, to counterbalance the increases that occur during learning.

Tononi and his long-term collaborator Chiara Cirelli have already shown that even short periods of sleep or wakefulness alter synaptic activity at multiple levels, and make synapses shrink or grow, respectively. Their latest study now seems to show that widespread synaptic downscaling takes place in the brains of mice while they sleep.

The new work, led by research associate Luisa de Vivo, involved collecting the brains of four mice that had just slept, four that had been kept awake to play with new toys, and four that had stayed awake on their own, and used a technique called serial block-face scanning electron microscopy to create high-resolution three-dimensional images of almost 7,000 synaptic connections in two different regions of the cerebral cortex – a task that took more than four years to complete.

The researchers examined thousands of images, to calculate the total surface area of contact between nerve terminals and dendritic spines, the tiny, finger-like protrusions which serve as the receiving end of brain synapses, and which grow larger when the synapses become stronger.

They found that it was decreased by about 18% in the mice that had slept compared to those that had remained awake - in other words, there was an overall decrease in the number of synaptic connections. And rather than being uniform, the downscaling was restricted to small spines, and spared the larger ones that were presumably involved in learning – consistent with the idea that synaptic connections are scaled down during sleep.

The second study provides further evidence for the synaptic homeostasis hypothesis, and also points to the molecular mechanisms underlying downscaling.

Graham Diering of Johns Hopkins University and his colleagues investigated how synapses are altered by the sleep/wake cycle, using two-photon imaging to visualise fluroescently-tagged synaptic proteins in the brains of live mice, and proteomic methods to purify and analyse the proteins from dendritic spines.

They found that sleep is associated with a decrease in the size of dendritic spines, and with a roughly 20% reduction in levels of a molecule called the AMPA receptor, which are removed from the shrunken spines. When mice are awake, a synaptic scaffold protein called Homer binds other receptors and their molecular partners together in a complex which it keeps in place at the synapse beneath the cell membrane. During sleep, a shortened variant called Homer1a enters dendritic spines to disassemble these complexes and drive the removal of AMPA receptors, which shrinks and weakens the connection.

They also created genetically engineered mice lacking the Homer1a gene. These animals slept just like their ordinary littermates, but the protein composition of their dendritic spines did not change, confirming that Homer1a plays a crucuial role in triggering synaptic downscaling.

Finally, the researchers trained mice to associate a particular location with mild electric shocks, and then injected some of them with a chemical that prevents Homer1a from entering dendritic spines. They then transferred the mice to a new environment. The untreated mice explored their new location freely, but those injected with the chemical cowered in the corner - a behaviour indicative of fear and anxiety - suggesting that they had intrusive memories of the shocks they had been given earlier.

Together, these studies provide the most compelling evidence yet for the synaptic honmeostasis hypothesis. They help to explain why sleep is beneficial for mental function, and why “sleeping on it” can help us think more clearly.

Many questions remain, however. How, for example, are synapses scaled down? We know that immune cells called microglia ‘prune’ synapses, but do they also participate in downscaling? How is synaptic downscaling linked to the neuronal activity associated with learning and memory? And how does it contribute to memory consolidation?

References

de Vivo, L., et al. (2017). Ultrastructural evidence for synaptic scaling across the wake/sleep cycle. Science, 355: 507-10.

Diering, G. H., et al. (2017). Homer1a drives homeostatic scaling-down of excitatory synapses during sleep. Science, 355: 511-15.

5 tricks to help your child sleep through the night

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In our busy lives full of activities, homework and intruding technology, how are parents to help their children get sufficient time with Mr. Sandman? Here are a few suggestions:

1. Set and keep to a routine

Bedtime routines make a world of difference. Set a specific time for going to sleep every night and a time for waking up, depending on your child's age and your family's schedule, and stick to it. Consistency is key. Include a bedtime story, a glass of milk, and a short cuddle every night to signal to your child that it's time to sleep and provide the security needed as they nod off to sleep.

2. Have a snack

Brown and Black have a snack in the Dr. Seuss book "Hop on Pop." Kids can have one, too, before heading to bed. It can actually help your kids sleep better. According to Today's Parent, protein and carbohydrates combined in a small snack aid sleep by forming "amino acids that act like tryptophan, the chemical that makes you feel sleepy after a turkey dinner."

3. Make daytime less hectic

Overscheduled kids often get fewer opportunities for vital free-play time. Too much stress can negatively affect your child's sleep habits, and unstructured playtime helps them find a good outlet for that extra energy while allowing them to wind down. Take a look at your child's schedule and talk with him about which activities he prefers, and then scale back.

4. Limit screen time, especially close to bedtime

Recent studies have shown that kids who play video games for an hour or more before bedtime experience disrupted sleep patterns. The solution? Strictly monitor screen time. Not only should you limit screen time during the day, experts at Healthline suggest turning off the games or TV two hours before going to bed.

5. Adjust your child's sleep environment

Just like adults, kids need the right environment when it's time for sleep. Soft sheets, a comfort object, white noise and a night light often do the trick.

It's best to start good sleep habits with your children when they are babies, but it's still possible to instill good "sleep hygiene" at any age. Make good rest for the whole family a priority, and you'll be amazed how much happier everyone is.

How much sleep do I need?

So now we know how much sleep we need. The National Sleep Foundation in the US has had 18 experts sifting through 320 research articles to deliver an updated version of its “sleep time duration recommendations”. The articles were whittled down from an original 2,412 on the basis of the strength of the studies.

In making their recommendations, the experts took into account the health benefits, but also the risks, associated with sleep. Too little sleep over several nights leaves you tired, unable to concentrate, depressed, anxious and, eventually, if it continues, at an increased risk of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. Too much sleep is associated with much the same problems.

The solution

So how much is the right amount of sleep? The new guidelines not only give recommended amounts, but also state what might be appropriate for different ages. Children aged six to nine need nine to 11 hours a night, but may get by on seven to eight. Teenagers need eight to 10 hours. Seven hours may be OK for some, but sleeping more than 11 hours a day may be detrimental to their health, although some may need that much during puberty.

Dr Lydia DonCarlos from Loyola University, Chicago, one of the experts on the study, says that the circadian rhythm of teenagers naturally shifts to make them feel sleepy later at night and to wake up later. This is a normal phenomenon and nothing to do with being addicted to social media. She warns that teenagers should still try to get enough sleep on a daily basis, rather than building up a sleep debt to pay off at weekends. “You can never quite make it up,” she says.

Adults aged 18 to 64 need to sleep for seven to nine hours a night, but some cope on six. For people over the age of 65, the recommended amount is between seven and eight hours, although some survive on five hours sleep (often waking up earlier and napping during the day).
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These recommendations are based on a thorough analysis of the studies. The methodologies do vary – some are based on how much sleep people reported they had had (which tends to include time spent in bed) and others are based on research carried out in laboratory conditions.

The experts did not look at quality of sleep (for example, whether people woke up in the night and couldn’t get back to sleep) or its architecture (how much was rapid-eye movement and how much was slow-wave sleep). Some people may survive on less than recommended amounts because they get higher-quality sleep.

DonCarlos says that more research into sleep is needed. “We spend one third of our life asleep, but we know so little about it.” At least knowing how much to aim for is a good start.

Sleeping in the same bed as your husband could be hurting your marriage

When you think about a married couple sleeping in separate beds you probably jump to some very negative conclusions. Maybe he forgot their anniversary, said something offensive or just ate way too much chili for dinner. He must be in the doghouse for something, right?

Well, that's not entirely true. A study done by Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada, reveals that about 35% of couples do not sleep in the same bed. Colleen Carney is the author of the study and says that separate beds actually have a positive effect on the relationship.

What sleeping in the same bed does to your brain

Carney conducted brain scans on study participants and found that couples that slept in the same bed got much less deep sleep than couples in separate beds. It comes down to the fact that when you sleep together there's a greater chance that you're accidentally waking each other up throughout the night. That's bad news. A lack of deep sleep affects you negatively when you're awake (think a weaker immune system, tiredness or even depression).

Additional research suggests (not surprisingly) that a lack of sleep compromises your ability to resolve conflicts with your spouse, therefore causing your marriage to suffer that much more.

Science is great, but let's get personal

For me, researching this topic was all well and good, but I wanted to find someone who lived it. It was easier than I expected. As it turns out, my cousin Jillian Schults is part of that 35% that doesn't sleep with her husband. In fact, they usually don't even sleep in the same room. Because she's insanely quotable, here's what she told me about her experience:

"Once we started sleeping in different beds both of our quality of sleep improved DRAMATICALLY. I thought it was just affecting me because I was pregnant but without me constantly rolling around and bugging my husband, he was sleeping better too. We knew pretty quickly that it was a great choice because both of our moods changed and we were more capable of completing our daily tasks and being happy about it because... Duh... We were actually sleeping at night. In fact, we like it so much we are sleeping in completely separate tents this year when we go camping," she said.

Another part of the 35%, Jenny Bybee, shared a similar experience. She's been married for almost 22 years now. She and her husband have slept in separate beds for over a decade. Here's why:

"We have totally different schedules - I am early to bed, early to rise and he is late. I like it cold and dark with white noise and he likes it warmer and silent. If I wasn't asleep when he'd come to bed it took me forever once he started snoring," she said.

It started out as a temporarily separate sleeping arrangement after her husband got sick - but after what she calls "the best weeks' sleep we'd had since having kids," they didn't look back.

"We both sleep so much better now because we don't have to worry about bothering the other one ... I didn't realize I was bottling up anger towards him for keeping me awake so I was much happier and nicer to him ... We both agree it was the best decision we ever made and it helped our relationship become better actually," she said.

A word to the 65% that do sleep together

Many couples have no problem sleeping together. If that describes you, great. I'm glad it's working for you. Sleep on. But, if you feel short tempered, annoyed or just plain grumpy towards your spouse during the day, it might be worth your time and effort to give different beds a real shot.

Can't sleep? Try this

Generally speaking, men have the ability to compartmentalize their thoughts. If they have worries they seem to be able to tuck them away in a separate place inside their brains and leave them there until they call them out again, which will likely be after they’ve had a good night’s rest.

In his book, "Male & Female Realities," Joe Tanenbaum makes the point that women have a harder time doing this because their brains are wired differently. They have 40 percent more interconnections between right and left brain, which means they are continually flashing thoughts back and forth. This is an advantage for mothers, but can also have a flip side—it can keep them awake when they are literally craving sleep.

Here are a few things you can try to turn off those constant concerns

1. Before going to bed write down your main concerns

Putting them on paper is like giving them a compartment where they can be addressed later. If you don’t do this, your mind will feel obligated to keep remembering, lest you forget something important. If you have an appointment with a teacher, doctor, or anyone, jot it down. Even if you have a worry such as needing to help Timmy with his math, jotting it down will take it off your mind for the night. It says that the problem is there but doesn’t have to be thought about again until tomorrow.

2. If you’re worried about a particular child, as you lie in bed, think of the most pleasant thing you can about that child. A time when he was especially good or fun to be with. A pleasant time you had together when things were going well. Even remembering back to when he was a baby, and you loved rocking him to sleep. Recalling good times is a pleasant way to lull yourself into sleep.

3. As you close your eyes and anticipate sleeping, let the melody and words of a favorite song run through your mind. Some people choose hymns for this, or other tunes that bring peaceful feelings. Some even have them softly playing nearby to lull them into sleep. Just listening for a few minutes can be helpful. Some have used a noise generator that plays sounds of the sea, a bubbling brook, or a soft rain which helps them sleep.

4. Be at peace with your spouse

An argument before going to bed is a surefire sleep killer. If you’ve had a disagreement, make peace. If you know that’s going to take a long time, say to each other, “We need to talk about this in the morning when we’re not so tired. So let’s just put this on hold and agree that we can solve this in the morning.” Then kiss each other goodnight. Kisses always help, even if some are more meaningful than others.

5. If nothing else is working you can hypnotize yourself into sleep

It’s a fairly simple process that has worked for many clients. Here are the steps:

a. Close your eyes and take three deep breaths, letting each out slowing.

b. Begin to visualize a relaxing response flowing over your whole body. Start at the top of your head, across your forehead, into your eyes, down across your cheeks, to your jaw as you allow your jaw to part slightly. Let the flow continue down your neck, across your shoulders, down your arms past your elbows, past your wrists to the very tips of your fingers which may cause you to notice a slight tingling at the end of your fingers. The relaxing response continues to flow across your back from left to right and then right to left. Then flows down your back, down your legs, past your knees, past your ankles to the very tips of our toes, which may cause you to notice a slight tingling in the tips of your toes. As you lie relaxed on your bed, you may have two different sensations: sinking down into your mattress and yet buoyant and floating above it.

c. Visualize yourself standing at the top of a beautiful well-lighted staircase that has a strong bannister going down. The idea is to now be curious to what your body feels as you take each step down. As you progress down one step at a time be interested in the sensations of your body. There is no hurry to go down the stairs. You may walk down four or five steps, then pause, and maybe walk back up one or two steps to again see what you experienced.

d. Go down about 20 steps, and there you will find a landing with a door to the side. Open the door and step through the door into the most beautiful and relaxing scene you’ve ever been in. This may be a meadow, a beach, a mountain view. As you step into the scene you find the temperature is very pleasing. The sky is clear with a few puffs of clouds, and the sunshine lightly touches your skin with a pleasing warmth. The light breeze pleasantly brushes your cheeks.

e. Gently explore your new surroundings and see a tree that invites you to sit down under it. As you sit down your hands touch the cool grass. You lean back against the tree, feeling the strength, security, peace, and calmness of your surroundings. Just sit there and enjoy that peace and the sleep that will come.

Find relief

As you try some of these suggestions you are bound to find relief. Keep at it. A good night’s rest is attainable.

Teenagers' sleep quality and mental health at risk over late-night mobile phone use

Teenagers’ late-night mobile phone use is harming their sleep and potentially their mental health, say researchers who advised that “physical boundaries” be set over use of such devices in the bedroom.

A longitudinal study of 1,101 Australian high school students aged between 13 and 16 found poor-quality sleep associated with late-night texting or calling was linked to a decline in mental health, such as depressed moods and declines in self-esteem and coping ability.

Lead researcher, Lynette Vernon of Murdoch University in Perth, said her findings were evidence of the need for curfews for teenagers to be established around use of devices in their bedrooms. Adolescents who used their phones as alarms should replace them with clocks in order to maintain “physical boundaries”, she said.

Researchers examined teenagers’ mobile phone use and their subsequent changes in wellbeing over four years of high school from 2010 to 2013, and found increasingly unencumbered access led to increases in psychosocial maladjustment.

Vernon said mobile phones had become entrenched in young people’s lives, and many did not have their use restricted. She pointed to international research that found about 80% of the young had access to a mobile phone.

The former high school teacher said she had observed her own pupils coming into the classroom tired. “I noticed it was affecting their performance – that was a few years back, too.”

Though the link between late-night phone use and sleep, and between sleep and wellbeing, had been established in previous research, this was the first study to assess all three together, she said.

“It’s important to have the research to translate to parents and teachers, who probably haven’t experienced to the same extent what kids are doing.

“If you’re finding your son or daughter is more moody and not coping at school, you often put that down to adolescence – but it could be as simple as them not sleeping at night.”

The study specified sending and receiving messages and/or phone calls, so did not distinguish between mobile phones and smartphones or social media.

Students in Year 8 who reported higher levels of night-time mobile phone use also reported higher levels of depressed mood and externalising behaviour and lower self-esteem when surveyed one year later.

Few teenagers indicated that they never used their phone after lights out, and on average, younger teenagers’ healthy mobile phone habits became more problematic as they advanced through high school.

“The outcomes of not coping – lower self-esteem, feeling moody, externalising behaviours and less self-regulation, aggressive and delinquent behaviours – the levels increase as sleep problems increased.”

Teenagers who reported “constantly texting into the night” said when surveyed a year later, the problem had worsened. “It’s escalating – they’re highly invested in it ... Some kids are staying up until 3am.”

The study, Mobile Phones in the Bedroom: Trajectories of Sleep Habits and Subsequent Adolescent Psychosocial Development, was published in the Society for Research in Child Development on Tuesday.

Teenagers need eight to 10 hours of sleep for healthy development, Vernon said.

Phones disrupted sleep in two ways, with the bright light from screens disrupting natural circadian rhythms, and messages received before sleep spiking “cognitive and emotional arousal”, said Vernon.

Education was the best prevention, Vernon said, and it was most effective if it began before children were given their first mobile phone. “As a mother of teenage kids, I think you’ve got to negotiate, and negotiate early.”

Parents could also set a good example by demonstrating good habits around phone use themselves. “Back when they’re aged seven to 10, you have to role model – you put your phone in a basket at night, it doesn’t go into your bedroom, it becomes normalised in the household and you have a much easier job.”

7 highly effective tips for better sleeping

Getting the rest you need is critical for having a happy, productive day. But it isn't always easy to fall asleep, stay asleep, or have your sleep be restful and restorative. Here are some tips to help you get the rest you need:

Take care of yourself

If you eat right and get some exercise, your body will be better able to rest. Besides all the other wonderful benefits exercise provides, it will help you sleep better and more deeply. Some people find that exercising at night stimulates them too much. If you believe this to be true for you, try exercising in the morning instead. Yoga and stretching shouldn't be troublesome in the evening, though, and may even promote better sleep.

Set your clock

Did you know you can help adjust your internal clock? Your body takes some of its cues from the amount of light it encounters. If your work schedule allows, spend some time during the day in sunlight, rather than spending all your time under artificial lighting. This way, your body will know the difference between day and night. Also, if you need to use the bathroom at night, avoid turning on bright lights, as this will disturb your natural rhythms and may make it difficult to go back to sleep.

Love the dark

When bedtime approaches, limit your use of TV, computers, and other electronic devices so that your body's natural supply of melatonin, a sleep hormone, can develop. Keep your bedroom as dark as you are comfortable with.

Use your bed for sleeping

Many people use their beds for catching up on tasks on their laptop or other work related items. Try not to associate your bedroom with work. Keep it a place of relaxation and rest.

Set the right temperature

Most people sleep better when the bedroom temperature is slightly on the cool side - about 65 degrees F. Try to keep the bedroom at a temperature that's comfortable to you...not too hot, not too cool.

Use some lavender essential oil

It has been shown to help people relax and fall asleep. Try a few drops on your pillow, rub some onto the back of your neck or the instep of your feet. Look for pure, natural essential oil. Synthetic versions abound in the marketplace, and these can actually be detrimental to sleep and can even cause headaches and allergic reactions.

Limit the noise level

Some outside noises can't be controlled, like sirens, cars, dogs barking, and so on. If noise is keeping you up or waking you up, try a white sound generator to mask it. Some people find that simply turning on a portable fan creates the necessary masking. Point it away from the bed if the blowing air makes you uncomfortable.

Above all, try to focus on relaxing. Set aside daily troubles as much as you can, and save planning and worrying for the morning. If you can master these techniques, then you shouldn't have any trouble sleeping the night away.

Top 4 Essentials for Quality Sleep in an Energized Life

One of the prime energy supporters in your life is sleep. Specifically, quality sleep. If it's not quality, the amount of sleep you get isn't as relevant as you might think.

How do you rate your sleep quality? Do you sleep soundly throughout the night, toss and turn, or lay there thinking? Or something other?

I'm a sound sleeper and always have been. In college I was baffled how classmates could complain of being insomniacs. The concept of not sleeping well was beyond me. I understand that better now, and am curious about sleep so I'm now on a quest to unravel the mystery of sound and quality sleep.

Science, medicine, and experience tell us there are mental and physical benefits of good sleep. It boosts your immune system, improves your mood, strengthens your resilience, regulates weight, and in general makes you a healthier person. Everybody wants quality sleep, regardless of how many hours they subscribe to as being a healthy amount of time. This article addresses the quality of the sleep only.

Some nights you don't fall asleep fast because you aren't tired, you're too tired, there are distractions in your brain or house (wherever you are sleeping on a given night), or you have biological issues (sleep apnea, heart arrhythmias, being too hungry or full) that keep you awake. Health issues are something you need to get your doctor's help on, the rest will be addressed here.

What I've come up with from my research is there are things you can do all day to support a sound night's sleep. Furthermore, there are things you can at night that relate specifically to sleep, adding to what you do during the day, so you have quality sleep.

The Top 4 Essentials

1. Create a Bedtime Routine

• a regular schedule of going to bed, and getting up

• foster a dark, quiet, and cool room and sleep in a comfortable bed

• remove distractions

• quit working 90 minutes before bed

• go to bed before you get your second wind; whether you are a lark or owl, there's a "natural" time for you to go to bed.

2. Clear your mind, manage your stress. Meditation, leisurely strolls, reading, and quiet music can help all of that. If you honor the suggestion to quit working at least 90 minutes before bedtime, your mind will have a chance to unwind and get in the groove of sleeping. Take that work ban one step further and initiate a blue-light ban two hours prior to bedtime; TVs, tablets, computers, and smartphones all generate blue light, though there are apps that change the light from blue to more of a yellow so that if you are on your devices near bedtime at least you don't have that bright, blue light that confuses the brain as to the time of day.

3. Don't eat too late or go to bed on an empty or full stomach. Avoid alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine in the evening too. Foods and nutrients that help you sleep include pumpkin seeds for the zinc which converts the brain chemicals tryptophan into serotonin, and magnesium which helps decrease cortisol, the stress hormone. There are more, but those two keep popping up so I'm passing them along.

4. Energize through the day with quality food, exercise (more than 2 hours before bed), and fresh air/sunshine. Yep, when you expend energy during the day it paves the way for a night of quality sleep.

Let's cover one more aspect of quality sleep: the amount of deep and light sleep you get. First, the technical explanation of sleep cycles. A good night's sleep consists of around five or six sleep cycles; each cycle lasts around 1.5 hours, and we need all five stages in order to wake up feeling rested and refreshed. One cycle consists of the following stages:

• Stage 1 - This is when you feel drowsy, relaxed, and hover between being awake and nodding off.

• Stage 2 - At this stage you are in a deeper sleep, your body cools a bit, and you become detached from your surroundings.

• Stages 3 and 4 - These are the "deep sleep" stages. It's hard to wake up from deep sleep because this is when there is the lowest amount of activity in your body. This is when your body rebuilds itself, restores energy, and hormones are released. This is the holy grail, the stuff we all want enough of.

• Stage 5 - This is the REM (rapid eye movement), or "dream sleep", stage. We slip back into Stage 2 for a few minutes before entering REM.

The amount of deep sleep we need each night isn't clear, and maybe because there are too many definitions for the concept of deep sleep. Going with two simple sleep stages - deep and light sleep, further defined as times of less and more movement - I'm concluding that ideally 45 percent of your sleep should be deep for the best quality sleep. REM sleep, for this discussion, is included in the deep sleep category.

You're serious about getting quality sleep. You take the steps outlined in the Top 4 Essentials list. But, you may not be able to really tell if you are getting quality sleep, outside feeling more or less refreshed and renewed. Then what? Consider a sleep monitor.

You can get highly scientific and technical and go to a sleep lab for a polysomnography test. That's the most complete and thorough testing you can get. It will track and record your brain waves, eye movement, heart rate, muscle tension, oxygen levels, breathing, air flow, and the frequency and volume of your snoring activity. The con to this is sleeping at the lab, often in a hospital, disrupts your natural sleep patterns. The pro is it's the most accurate and thorough testing available - for now.

Home devices can help, and they get more accurate with technological advances, though they aren't as accurate as the polysomnography test. The biggest disappointment to me is that they may overestimate your sleep length and quality. If you don't want to go the lab route, this is a reasonable alternative. However, you'll at least have a consistent trend of your sleep pattern.

Using my Vivofit2 fitness tracker ($75 on Amazon) to track my movement and sleep patterns has been an interesting exercise for five weeks now. IF it's consistent in its tracking of my sleep, what I've observed is that I find I feel most rested on the nights my deep sleep happens for at least 66 percent of the night.

The bottom line really is how rested you feel when you wake up. Are you refreshed and renewed after your sleep? If so, maybe it doesn't matter to you how much of your sleep is deep and how much is light.

If you don't get a quality night's sleep, experiment with the above suggestions until you find the formula that works for you. If you get quality sleep, consider experimenting with the above suggestions to see if your sleep improves and you get even more rest and renewal.

Improve your mental and physical well being by getting quality sleep every night. Improve your quality of life with your quality of sleep. Improve your energy with quality sleep.

Kit Cassingham is the Chief Energizing Officer at LIFE (Live In Focused Energy). She's been coaching professionals in energizing their lives for vitality, productivity, alertness, and satisfaction since 1989. Kit lives an energized life, and continuously looks for ways to help improve that lifestyle for herself and others.

How to get a good night's sleep

Getting a good night’s sleep requires more than just going to bed on time. Try following these five sleep tips to give yourself the best chance of getting consistent, quality sleep each night. And if you feel like you’re doing everything you can to get a good night’s sleep but no longer have the energy to do the things you love, there might be more to the story. Sleep apnea affects more than 1 in 3 men and 1 in 6 women between age 30­–70, with most people being undiagnosed.1 Talk to your doctor and ask about a sleep apnea test – which can be done in a sleep lab or the comfort of your own home.

1.Allocate enough time for sleep. Sleep is just as important as diet and exercise, so it’s important to allocate the right amount of time in your day for sleep and plan the rest of your schedule accordingly. Getting a good night’s sleep means 7–8 hours each night for adults (including older adults), 9–10 hours for teens, at least 10 hours for school-aged children and 11–12 hours for preschool-aged children.

2.Create consistent sleep habits. As creatures of habit, we’re usually more successful when following a routine. Sleep is no different. From your pre-sleep ritual to going to bed and waking up at the same time, you’ll find that consistency makes it easier to fall asleep each night.

3.Create a comfortable sleep environment. Make sure your bedroom is cool, quiet and comfortable – especially your bed. It may take some experimenting and an investment on your part, but finding an ultra-comfortable bed and pillow is invaluable. We spend one-third of our lives in bed, making it the one area of your life you don’t want to compromise on comfort.

4.Turn it off before bed. Whether it’s television, reading, email or texting, give yourself a nice window of time to unplug and relax before bedtime. Your body should associate your bed with sleep and these activities ramp up your brain activity rather than relaxing it. Television and bright light can also suppress melatonin production – making it difficult to fall asleep.

5.Utilize sleep technology. There are a variety of technologies out there that can help improve your sleep. The  S+ by ResMed is the world’s first non-contact sleep sensor; it combines a bedside sleep monitor, smartphone app and web-based app to help you track and better understand your sleeping patterns. It then creates personalized feedback and suggestions to help improve your sleep.

10 Reasons Why Good Sleep is Important

A good night’s sleep is incredibly important for health.

In fact, it is just as important as eating healthy and exercising.

Unfortunately, the Western environment is interfering with natural sleep patterns.

People are now sleeping less than they did in the past, and sleep quality has decreased as well.

Here are 10 reasons why good sleep is important.

1. Poor Sleep Can Make You Fat

Poor sleep is strongly linked to weight gain.

People with short sleep duration tend to weigh significantly more than those who get adequate sleep (1, 2).

In fact, short sleep duration is one of the strongest risk factors for obesity.

In one massive review study, children and adults with short sleep duration were 89% and 55% more likely to become obese, respectively (3).

The effect of sleep on weight gain is believed to be mediated by numerous factors, including hormones and motivation to exercise (4).

If you are trying to lose weight, getting quality sleep is absolutely crucial.

Bottom Line: Short sleep duration is associated with a drastically increased risk of weight gain and obesity, in both children and adults.

2. Good Sleepers Tend to Eat Fewer Calories

Studies show that sleep deprived individuals have a bigger appetite and tend to eat more calories.

Sleep deprivation disrupts the daily fluctuations in appetite hormones and is believed to cause poor appetite regulation (2, 5).

This includes higher levels of ghrelin, the hormone that stimulates appetite, and reduced levels of leptin, the hormone that suppresses appetite (6).

Bottom Line: Poor sleep affects hormones that regulate appetite. Those who get adequate sleep tend to eat fewer calories than those who don’t.

3. Good Sleep Can Improve Concentration and Productivity

Sleep is important for various aspects of brain function.

This includes cognition, concentration, productivity and performance (7).

All of these are negatively affected by sleep deprivation.

A study on medical interns provides a good example.

Interns on a “traditional schedule” made 36% more serious medical errors than interns on a schedule that allowed more sleep (8).

Another study found short sleep can negatively impact some aspects of brain function to a similar degree as alcohol intoxication (9).

Good sleep, on the other hand, has been shown to improve problem solving skills and enhance memory performance of both children and adults (10, 11, 12).

Bottom Line: Good sleep can maximize problem solving skills and enhance memory. Poor sleep has been shown to impair brain function.

4. Good Sleep Can Maximize Athletic Performance

Sleep has been shown to enhance athletic performance.

In a study on basketball players, longer sleep was shown to significantly improve speed, accuracy, reaction times, and mental wellbeing (13).

Less sleep duration has also been associated with poor exercise performance and functional limitation in elderly women.

A study of over 2,800 women found that poor sleep was linked to slower walking, lower grip strength, and greater difficulty performing independent activities (14).

Bottom Line: Longer sleep has been shown to improve many aspects of athletic and physical performance.

5. Poor Sleepers Have a Greater Risk of Heart Disease and Stroke

We know that sleep quality and duration can have a major effect on many risk factors.

These are the factors believed to drive chronic diseases, including heart disease.

A review of 15 studies found that short sleepers are at far greater risk of heart disease or stroke than those who sleep 7 to 8 hours per night (15).

Bottom Line: Sleeping less than 7-8 hours per night is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.

6. Sleep Affects Glucose Metabolism and Type 2 Diabetes Risk

Experimental sleep restriction affects blood sugar and reduces insulin sensitivity (16, 17).

In a study of healthy young men, restricting sleep to 4 hours per night for 6 nights in a row caused symptoms of pre-diabetes (18).

This was then resolved after 1 week of increased sleep duration.

Poor sleep habits are also strongly linked to adverse effects on blood sugar in the general population.

Those sleeping less than 6 hours per night have repeatedly been shown to be at increased risk for type 2 diabetes (19, 20).

Bottom Line: Sleep deprivation can cause pre-diabetes in healthy adults, in as little as 6 days. Many studies show a strong link between short sleep duration and type 2 diabetes risk.

7. Poor Sleep is Linked to Depression

Mental health issues, such as depression, are strongly linked to poor sleep quality and sleeping disorders.

It has been estimated that 90% of patients with depression complain about sleep quality (21).

Poor sleep is even associated with increased risk of death by suicide (22).

Those with sleeping disorders, such as insomnia or obstructive sleep apnea, also report significantly higher rates of depression than those without (23).

Bottom Line: Poor sleeping patterns are strongly linked to depression, particularly for those with a sleeping disorder.

8. Sleep Improves Your Immune Function

Even a small loss of sleep has been shown to impair immune function (24).

One large 2-week study monitored the development of the common cold after giving people nasal drops with the virus that causes colds (25).

They found that those who slept less than 7 hours were almost three times more likely to develop a cold than those who slept 8 hours or more.

If you often get colds, ensuring that you get at least 8 hours of sleep per night could be very helpful. Eating more garlic can help too.

Bottom Line: Getting at least 8 hours of sleep can improve immune function and help fight the common cold.

9. Poor Sleep is Linked to Increased Inflammation

Sleep can have a major effect on inflammation in the body.

In fact, sleep loss is known to activate undesirable markers of inflammation and cell damage.

Poor sleep has been strongly linked to long-term inflammation of the digestive tract, in disorders known as inflammatory bowel diseases (26, 27).

One study observed that sleep deprived patients with Crohn’s disease were twice as likely to relapse as patients who slept well (28).

Researchers are even recommending sleep evaluation to help predict outcomes in sufferers of long-term inflammatory issues (27).

Bottom Line: Sleep affects the body’s inflammatory responses. Poor sleep is strongly linked to inflammatory bowel diseases and can increase the risk of disease recurrence.

10. Sleep Affects Emotions and Social Interactions

Sleep loss reduces our ability to interact socially.

Several studies confirmed this using emotional facial recognition tests (29, 30).

One study found that people who had not slept had a reduced ability to recognize expressions of anger and happiness (31).

Researchers believe that poor sleep affects our ability to recognize important social cues and process emotional information.

5 Methods to Improve Sleep

Did you know that adults should aim to get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night? How close are you to reaching this goal? A poor sleep schedule won’t just leave you feeling groggy and slow each morning, it could have some very real health risks. Sleep disorders and chronic sleep loss can lead to an increased risk of heart attack, hypertension, stroke, diabetes and other potential health issues.

Of course, if you don’t want to rely on sleeping pills and other prescription sleep aids, various lifestyle and behavioral changes can make a major difference.

Here are a few tips on how you can transform your sleep schedule from FSAstore.com:

Pre-sleep relaxation

Before heading to bed, we may have a tendency to catch up on our favorite TV shows or surf the web on our mobile devices – but this will dramatically inhibit the body’s ability to wind down and achieve restful sleep. Photoreceptors in the retina sense light and dark and regulate the body’s circadian rhythms that allow us to be alert in the morning and wind down in the evening. Various studies have shown that light emitted from digital devices can interfere with the sleep cycle, so it’s advisable to read or relax for an hour before bed to allow your brain to wind down and prepare for sleep.

Regular exercise

We all know that joining a gym or setting aside time each day to exercise can be a major boost to your health, but it can aid your sleep regimen as well. Releasing some of that pent-up energy during the day can help you achieve a deeper, more restful sleep. However, be sure to avoid exercising too closely to bedtime as physical activity can be stimulating and you may be too energized to fall asleep quickly. Aim to complete all physical activity 4 hours before hitting the sack.

Reorganize your master bedroom

Is your bedroom as conducive to sleeping as it could be? Your master bedroom should be a space where the primary aim is to promote relaxation and eliminate outside distractions. First, the room should be at a cool temperature, between 60 to 67 degrees, as well as including blackout shades to eliminate any light filtering into the room that could interfere with sleep. Experiment with humidifiers, ear plugs, eye masks, white noise machines and anything else that can benefit your sleep schedule.

Regulate caffeine intake

Most of us can’t imagine getting through the day without a morning cup of coffee, or even without the 2 pm cup to push through late afternoon fatigue. However, caffeine is a very strong stimulant that can stay in your body for hours, which can prevent you from entering a deep sleep or falling asleep altogether. Doctors advise against caffeine intake for at least 8 hours before going to bed to achieve optimal sleep.

Watch what you eat

Heading to bed when you’re hungry or completely full can also interfere with your sleep, as the discomfort of either state can keep you up. Be sure to give yourself plenty of time between dinner and bedtime to fully digest, and if you do decide to have a late snack, stick with foods that combine carbohydrates, as well as either calcium or a protein that contains the amino acid tryptophan. These foods can boost the body’s production of serotonin, which brings about a state of calm that can help you sleep. Cheese, crackers, yogurt, milk or peanut butter a